Manuscript Sources for Sahih Bukhari

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Q:) I read with interest your refutations of
the rejecters of the Sunnah. These people reject Hadith and try to
influence other Muslims into their line of thinking. It is no use
discussing with them as I spent a few days arguing with them to no
avail. While I believe this movement to be a clear deviation from the
middle way, I would like to ask a question on the basis that you may
know more on the history of the hadith than I do and thereby provide a
Muslim brother with a stronger argument against these deviations.

What is the original manuscript on which the books of Sahih Bukhari
which we have today are based? I understand that there have been several
commentaries on Sahih Bukhari and there is a claim that what we have
today is just one of the commentaries i.e that of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani.
There is also mention of a certain Imam Hafiz Yununi who apparently
provided the original copy for all available Sahih Bukhari. [Cherif]?

A:) It seems that you have been given very incorrect
information concerning Sahih Bukhari.

The present copies of Sahih Bukhari are based on dozens of manuscripts,
which are available in many big libraries all over the world. Many of
the commentaries mention the differences found in the different
manuscripts, while the Indian copy of Bukhari mentions the differences
in the side-notes.

As for the copy of Imam Yununi, this is a copy only found a few years
ago and published for the first time in 2002.

Thus, there is no basis for claiming that today's copies of Sahih
Bukhari are all based on one manuscript.

As for the commentaries, the information you seem to have been given is
even more laughable.

Albalagh Note: Many of these
questions arise because most of us have not only never received any
formal Islamic education, we have not even seen the actual books. It
will be quite instructive, therefore, to look at the classic Islamic
books in Arabic printed in the Arab world today. Take, for example, the
Al-Adhkar of Imam Nawawi. The 2002 edition published by Dar Ibn Kathir,
Beirut (available at Albalagh Bookstore), had research done by Yusuf Ali
Badewi and Ahmed Muhammad Al-Sayyid.

It is based on two manuscripts, both found in a library in Damascus. A)
It bears the number 7017 of the library and was written by hand by
Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abdul Rahim in Dhul-Hijja 739 AH. B) It bears the
number 1223 of the library and has 178 pages and a page size of 17X26
cm. It was written by Muhammad ibn Uthma ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman Al-Ba'ali.
It comes from the trust of Mulla Uthman Al-Kurdi and has been read to
and corrected by a group of ulama, the last of whom was Shaikhul Islam
Khattab. Yusuf Bedewi has painstakingly gone through both manuscripts
word by word and noted the slightest differences between them in the
published book. He notes that this word is only found in A and this word
is only found in B. A photocopy of the beginning pages of both
manuscripts is also included in the book.

Further research includes commentary on the status of each hadith (sahih,
hasan, da'eef, munkar, etc.) in the footnotes. This is the care taken
for a book of supplications! From this we can imagine the care taken in
producing the books that deal with beliefs and laws and the core of
Islamic teachings.

The fact is that there is an unbelievable treasure in the Islamic works
produced over the centuries. The tragedy is that most of the "educated"
Muslims today have never even looked at them and are not even aware of
their existence. And they are the ones who disseminate their "expert"
opinions about Islamic sciences! The irony of the "information age," as
someone aptly remarked, is the proliferation of the uninformed opinion.